Letters to the Editor

It’s Govt. vs. We the People

Why are we paying Barack Obama to travel the country, trying to sell a product (that we have already paid for), to people who really don’t want it or shouldn’t need it?

We elected him to serve as president of this country, but he does not like the job and is now moonlighting as an insurance salesman/amateur golfer. Welcome to wealth redistribution through health redistribution.

A Marxist/communist revolutionary named Vladimir Lenin reportedly said “socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state.” As a leader of Russia he “established free universal health care, free education systems, and promulgated the politico-civil rights of women.”

Did that turn out well? Does any of that seem vaguely similar to concepts in Obama’s speeches over the last seven years?

Socialists believe government should be the funding mechanism for health care as single payer. In 2003, state senator Obama told labor groups that he was a proponent of single payer. As a presidential candidate he said the exact opposite, explaining that we have an employer based system with private insurers and that transitioning to single payer would be too disruptive.

In reality, Obama depends on disruption as a distraction from his efforts to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” My Obama observation rules #2 & #3 easily explain why Obamacare quickly became what puppets in the media refer to as his “signature” piece of legislation.

The federal government wasn’t meant to work quickly, but it is forced to by the “Obama crisis mode.” Witness to this has been five years of bad legislation, massive spending, oppressive regulation, increased taxation, corruption and loss of freedom.

As we move from one crisis to another, nothing ever gets resolved. As long as Obama is president, the basic problems that are killing the country never will be resolved.

How many times has Obama focused like a laser on the economy and job creation? I think the lyrics to a Robert Palmer song describe government under Obama pretty well. “She’s so fine, there’s no telling where the money went.” Shouldn’t we expect to see some results from the spending of trillions of dollars? Instead of buying government a new party dress, she should have gotten an apron.

As a man with a family, it is my job to do everything I can to provide for the people that I love. Government shouldn’t try to do that. Even worse, this government is working against that.

It may sound corny, but maybe we should be singing the lyrics to a song by Sister Sledge, “We are family.”

The federal government is out of control and politicians won’t fix it. It’s government vs. We the People.

There is an old expression, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” In the past We the People have come together (as family if you will) to cure our ills. Returning to that line of thinking/action is way past due. Talk to your neighbor about it.

Leaders are one-of-a-kind

Written by Neil A. Davis, Gothenburg
Thursday, 10 October 2013 14:19

Can you imagine any commander in chief of our armed forces prior to Barack Obama, purposely barricading the national WWII memorial—to prevent our greatest generation warriors from visiting the memorial built in their honor—in an attempt to lay blame on his opponents for a government shutdown? Me neither.

To describe this action; disgraceful, insulting, disrespectful, shameful and un-American are words that come to mind. What I would really like to write would make General George S. Patton blush.

What speaker of the house prior to Nancy Pelosi would have the arrogant disregard for our intelligence by telling us we needed to pass the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) so we could find out what was in it? No one knew what was in it.

When Congress found out Obamacare would cause them to lose their “golden parachute” health plans and be thrown on the exchanges like everyone else, the howling of wounded animals began. Obama unconstitutionally changed the law by restoring their generous subsidies. He also unconstitutionally delayed the employer mandate for his corporate buddies and left individuals and small businesses hung out to dry.

Republicans charged that Obama’s illegal changes, signaled the ACA was not ready for implementation. Democrats say it is the law of the land. It’s not. Obama changed it. House Republicans attempted to tie de-funding of Obamacare to the continuing resolution to fund the government. The Senate rejected it. The House settled on delaying the individual mandate, like Obama had done for bigger business. The Senate rejected that and the government shut down.

The House has since been passing piecemeal bills to fund the government, but Senate leader Harry Reid refuses to bring them up for a vote. One of the bills would fund hundreds of cancer patients at the National Institutes of Health. A CNN reporter asked Reid, “If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?” Reid’s response was “...why would we want to do that?” Then he berated the reporter for asking the question. Isn’t that all you need to know about Harry Reid’s character and lust for power?

President Obama has been the first one to jump into the fear mongering cesspool, by claiming Republicans would cause a worldwide economic crisis if they interfered with his plans to increase the debt limit (something no one was even talking about).

At the same time he claims he has bent over backwards to work with the Republican party and has purposely kept his rhetoric down. Neither of which is true.

In reality the rhetoric he uses to disparage Republicans perfectly describes his own actions. Example: “I’m happy to have negotiations but we can’t do it with a gun held to the head of the American people.” Just after the mass shooting at the Naval Yard in Washington D.C. Real classy Mr. President!

Follow-up article disappoints

I find it very disheartening that this newspaper could make such a huge error on an article at the end of someone’s life. And in the follow-up paper and article, there be no apology to the already grieving family by the person that wrote the article.

Cub Scout kindness appreciated

Written by Ted and Bettie Haney, Gothenburg
Thursday, 26 September 2013 18:03

Saturday, as the parade was winding down, a young lad dressed in a Cub Scout uniform stopped, smiled and said, “Hello.” He then proceeded to share the candy he had gathered.

Not many young people today have the kindness and selflessness that this young man had.

I presume the lady with him was his mother—she should be very proud of this boy!

God bless you young man.

Property tax relief should be focus

Written by Troy Linn, president Dawson County Farm Bureau Board of Directors
Friday, 20 September 2013 14:49

Next week the Legislature’s Tax Modernization Committee will hold a public hearing in North Platte to get citizen input about possible changes in state tax policy. While there was a lot of talk about tax reform at the state Capitol last year, the reality is that meaningful tax reform for most Nebraskans means property tax reform. One of the guiding principles of the Committee as they discuss broader tax reform is to examine equity in Nebraska’s tax system. As the tax reform discussion comes closer to home, here are few things worthy of noting about property taxes and equity:

Property taxes are particularly hard on rural areas of the state, including counties surrounding Lincoln County and the North Platte area. Analysis by the Nebraska Farm Bureau shows that the per-person property tax burden for counties in this area tend to be higher, and in many cases significantly higher, than the per-person property tax load when compared with Nebraska’s largely urban counties.

When you examine Lincoln and its surrounding counties; 10 of the 11 counties carry a higher per-person property tax load than individuals in the more populated Nebraska counties of Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster. Only Dawson and Lincoln counties have a similar per-person property tax burden. Both Hayes and McPherson counties carry a per-person property tax load more than three times that of Sarpy County, the highest per-person property tax county of the three most urban counties. The per-person tax burden in Arthur, Logan, Perkins, Frontier, Chase and Custer counties carry per person property tax loads double that of Sarpy County.

Property taxes don’t consider ability to pay. While Dawson County has a similar per-person property tax burden with the more urban counties; it, like neighboring counties, has a lower per capita income level than its urban counterparts.

According the U.S. Census Bureau, Sarpy County’s per capita income level is $29,610, nearly $3,000 more than Lincoln County, the area’s highest per capita income county ($26,648) and nearly $10,000 more than Arthur ($20,071) and Dawson ($20,077) counties, the lowest per capita income counties in the area. In short, residents in the North Platte region have less income to pay higher property tax bills. Tax relief that focuses on income taxes won’t provide relief to these counties that carries a heavy property tax load and have less income to be taxed to start with.

With the Tax Modernization Committee coming to North Platte next week, area residents would be well served to not only attend the public hearing but send a strong message that property tax reform should be the primary focus of any tax reform talks, particularly when equity is a part of the equation. Tax reform that doesn’t include property tax relief won’t be much relief for those of us who live in this area.

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